IT Contractor: HealthCare.gov Was The First Of Its Kind

At the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s oversight hearing Thursday on HealthCare.gov’s troubled launch, an executive for one of the project’s top software companies stressed to members that the insurance marketplace was a first-of-its-kind technological endeavor.

“The federal exchange … is not a standard consumer website,” Cheryl Campbell, senior vice president at CGI Federal, a lead contractor for the site, told the committee. “Rather, it is a sophisticated technology platform that for the first time in history combines the processes of selecting and enrolling in insurance and determining eligibility for government subsidies all in one place and in real-time.”

“Some consumers were able to enroll on October 1, but we acknowledge that issues arising in the federal exchange make the enrollment process difficult for too many Americans,” she continued. “Consequently, CGI Federal’s focus shifted to solving consumer access and navigation problems on the exchange.”